Generous South Africans donate online to help ‘buddy’ strangers

A Gauteng girl who needed life-saving heart surgery in the US, a two-year-old needing a diabetic alert dog and internet sensation Vernon Koekemoer won the hearts of donors on SA’s biggest crowdfunding digital platform.

According to BackaBuddy’s annual statistics released to TimesLIVE, the organisation has raised R79m this year, and more than R378m has been “raised for 44,077 causes with the help of 48,542 Cause Champions”.

The Hope for Kyleigh campaign raised the highest amount, almost R4m, online and offline since the campaign launched in December 2021, for Kyleigh Kista from Benoni, Gauteng, to have a complex congenital heart defect corrected with a procedure at Boston Children’s Hospital in the US.

In March the three-year-old had a cardiac catheterisation when her arteries were ballooned, a stent (tube) was placed, and the dual supply was fixed. The procedure was a success and Kyleigh recovered quickly.

Jenna-Mae van der Vyver, aged 2, of Krugersdorp benefited from the generosity of strangers who have so far donated more than was needed for her parents to acquire a diabetic alert dog costing R60,000. 

South Africans dug deep into their pockets to pay for medical treatment and comprehensive care for Cassie Booyse, better known as Vernon Koekemoer or “SA’s Chuck Norris”, when they donated more than the R100,000 target.

Koekemoer, who became an instant celebrity in 2008 after a photograph of him at a H2O Party went viral, was fighting for his life this year after three failed hip operations.

BackaBuddy spokesperson Zane Groenewald told TimesLIVE that through the generosity of donors locally and abroad, the crowdfunding platform raised more than R13m this year compared to 2021.

“In 2022, more than R79m was raised on BackaBuddy, bringing the total funds raised on the platform since our inception to R378m. More than 13,500 campaigns were created on BackaBuddy in 2022. This represents an additional 2,000 campaigns compared to 2021, or a 17% increase year-on-year,” he said.

Groenewald said most campaigns were to fund medical procedures or events.

BackaBuddy CEO Patrick Schofield said with people significantly financially poorer after the pandemic, many people are now more aware of the struggles of others, and more likely to give.

“Coming out of the pandemic, the world is a much more compassionate place and giving has been made easier through new technological innovations.

“We have experienced a huge surge in people giving in many ways, whether it be through donating funds or by volunteering their time and skills to support causes. By surveying more than 8,000 BackaBuddy donors, we found many more people want to donate their time and skills to support causes they are passionate about,” said Schofield.

TimesLIVE

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